Beyond the Joystick: Intro to Alternative Controls Workshop Series at Eyebeam

http://www.eyebeam.org/events/beyond-the-joystick-introduction-to-altern... I am running this workshop series weekly on Tuesday Evenings for 6 weeks, starting on June 28 to Aug 2 at Eyebeam. It’s basically for artists, designers and hobbyists interested in starting to think about and explore alternative physical interfaces that can be used in games, toys or interactive art projects. We’ll be learning about using the Arduino and some Processing with various sensors and switches to make simple, but effective controllers. This area is a big part of my practice so I am really excited about sharing it!

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In preparation for EyeBeam’s latest Computational Fashion exhibition, Kaho’s custom-built game dome took a trip from the Game Innovation Lab in Brooklyn all the way out to it’s new home at Eyebeam, in Manhattan. Despite the size of the dome, the process of taking down and then reconstructing the dome is quite simple! The dome itself is one large piece of fabric (formerly 3 pieces) sewn together by Kaho, a set of tent poles, a lightweight rope, and a dome-shaped mirror to properly size the images coming from the projector. The dome is held up by standard tent poles organized into “ribs” and “spines.” The dome has three spines running from top to bottom and six ribs running from side to side. Tent poles fit into nice little sleeves (or, seams, I guess) along the dome, and they slide in and out of the sleeves just like normal tent poles would on a normal tent. Deconstruction: This process was relatively quick, especially once we got the hang of bending the tent poles.

While I do tend to like foreign films and independent films most, I have always had a soft spot for action films, even the gratuitously violent ones. No matter how fantastical or b-class it might be, I find myself jumping in my seat, cringing, cheering for the good guy and on occasion covering my mouth in disbelief. I am a sucker for this stuff, no doubt. When I designed Hit Me! I was looking for inspiration — anything — with the idea in mind that I wanted to create a game that was intense and exciting — not just to play but also to watch. I went through my mental rolodex of action film memories, and stopped at Jean Claude Van Damme’s Lionheart. I studied games such as Twister, Sumo and Fencing for inspiration too, but at the end the fight scenes from Lionheart had a big influence on the game.

I am teaching this workshop again starting next week September 21st – October 26th, Wednesdays from 6:30-9pm. For more info go here: http://www.eyebeam.org/events/beyond-the-joystick-introduction-to-altern...

I recently needed an obnoxiously large push button for the Ninja Shadow Warrior game cabinet. I have been working on making the cabinet whimsical by adding oversized elements to it. I found a 5 dollar pack of 2 lights at Home Depot and took them apart. I then opened it and did the following: I replaced the on-off switch inside the light with a momentary snap switch that is normally open and glued it down. I rewired the snap switch with the usual “button circuit” – a 10k resistor, ground, voltage, and a wire to pin2 on the Arduino. I rewired the light bulb so that the Arduino can control it from pin8, via reed relay. I mounted it on to the game cabinet I used the digital Button code example and now I have an obnoxiously large push button made cheaply. I separated the light from the switch part so that the game can flash the button light whenever it wants to bring attention to the push button, even if it hasn’t been pushed yet.